GMAT Strategy

To begin, I think you need to begin taking full-length practice tests WITHOUT pressing the pause button.
This is the only way to:
1) get a solid idea of your current skills
2) identify your strengths and weaknesses

Your scores suggest that you have a pretty good understanding of the material. But, I get the impression that your test-taking skills (time management, endurance, anxiety reduction) may need some work. Keep in mind that GMAT is a test of your math and verbal skills AND it's a test of your test-taking skills.

My suggestion:
Keep taking full-length tests, but NO MORE PAUSE BUTTONS.
After each test, you must carefully analyze the results. During this analysis, there are four main types of weakness to watch out for:
1. specific Quant skills/concepts (e.g., algebra, standard deviation, etc.)
2. specific Verbal skills/concepts (e.g., verb tenses, assumption CR questions, etc.)
3. test-taking skills (time management, endurance, anxiety etc.)
4. silly mistakes

For the first two weaknesses, the fix is pretty straightforward. Learn the concept/skill and find some practice questions to strengthen that weakness. To focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature to isolate one concept. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.

If your test-taking skills are holding you back, then you need to work on these. For example, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244.

Finally, if silly mistakes are hurting your score, then it's important that you identify and categorize these mistakes so that, during tests, you can easily spot situations in which you're prone to making errors. I write about this and other strategies in the following article for BTG: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/09/ ... n-the-gmat

I hope that helps.

Cheers,
Brent

Hi Fmaier,

First off, you need to STOP taking practice CATs. A practice CAT score is really only meaningful IF you take the ENTIRE CAT and do so under Test-Like conditions. If you've used the pause button on most (or all) of your CATs, then you don't have much in the way of meaningful data to help you adjust your study plan. Your scores are likely "inflated" and you don't have a genuine sense of your pacing and endurance skills. Right now, you probably need to do more practice, drills, review, etc. so that you can build up a bit more confidence before taking another CAT.

Speed and pacing problems are usually the result of some other issue and not problems in-and-of themselves. To that end, there are some aspects to HOW you answer questions that you can assess (and hopefully improve upon). How many times do you read a prompt before you get to work? How often do you have to go back and reread the question while you're in the "middle" of solving it? How often are you trying to do work in your head? Could you be taking more notes, labeling your work, etc. in a more thorough way than you currently do? Do you know how to answer questions using more than one approach?

Part of your overall problem is that you're focused on a book-heavy approach. Books are limited in what they can show you and a book can't force you out of any bad habits that you've developed. To score 700+, you're likely going to need to invest in some online resources that offer consistent, professional guidance/training so that you physically "see" how you could be solving problems.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Fmaier,

If you have any questions throughout this process, you can feel free to contact me directly.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Francisca,

First off, a 690 is a fantastic score (it's just shy of the 90th percentile overall), so you should apply to any School that interests you. While the average GMAT scores at the Schools you named will be slightly higher than yours, your score is 'in the range' of every Business School on your list.

Since you've named some highly competitive programs, you should seriously consider working with an Admissions Expert on your applications. There is a Forum full of them here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/ask-an-mba-a ... t-f40.html

There is one specific Admissions Expert that I can personally recommend, if you're interested. All things being equal, I think that you're set with this score and that you should put your efforts into your overall applications (essays, interview prep, etc.).

Congrats again!

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich